The present invention relates generally to portable vacuum cleaners and more particularly, to a vacuum cleaner capable of cleaning both air and liquid.
Portable vacuum cleaners which pick up or vacuum solid or liquid material are known in the prior art. These portable vacuum cleaners are frequently referred to as "wet-dry" vacuum cleaners. Typically, such vacuum cleaners include a filter assembly to deflect or resist the passage of dirt through a passage way to the motor.
An example of a conventional wet/dry vacuum cleaner presently known is a product marketed by The Hoover Company under its trademark "DUBL-DUTY". Details of this wet/dry vacuum cleaner are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,685. The filter assembly of the Hoover product includes a liquid air separator further functioning as a filter housing and a filter member disposed within the separator or housing. The filter member includes a flange having an annular groove or recess which mates with an annular rim or tongue extending from the rear of the separator for connecting the separator to the filter member. The filter member flange also includes a gasket which provides a liquid and air tight seal with the interior surface of the canister of the cleaner. The frictional force holding the filter assembly within the canister is relatively strong.
When the canister is removed from its housing so that the user of the vacuum cleaner can clean the filter, the filter member and separator are removed as an integral unit. In fact, a significant number of the users of such vacuum cleaners do not recognize that the filter must be removed from the separator or housing to clean the same. If the filter is not properly cleaned, a significant degradation of the operating performance of the vacuum cleaner will take place.
Another example of a "wet-dry" vacuum cleaner is the "POWER PRO" cleaner sold by Black & Decker (U.S.) Inc. While this vacuum cleaner has proven generally satisfactory in actual performance, it initially suffered from the same problem associated with the "DUBL-DUTY" vacuum cleaner as previously discussed.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to enable a user of a handheld vacuum cleaner to readily remove the filter of the filter assembly when the filter requires cleaning.